Aurobindo Pharma has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Canadian firm Apotex International Inc.’s commercial operations and certain supporting infrastructure in five European countries in a €74-million transaction.
The move is in line with the firm’s strategy to strengthen and grow its European business and expand in Eastern Europe, the firm said on Saturday.
Product pipeline
The acquisition includes a portfolio of more than 200 prescription drugs and 88 OTC products as well as an additional pipeline of more than 20 products that are likely to be introduced over next two years.
“We believe this acquisition is a key step towards our goal of becoming one of the leading generics companies in Europe,” said V. Muralidharan, SVP, Aurobindo’s European operations
He expected a seamless integration of the acquired businesses with the rest of the Aurobindo Group “given the success we have achieved in Europe to date.”
Aurobindo said the acquisition would enable it to add significant sales in Poland on the established ‘APO’ brand name as well as a dedicated sales force covering physicians and the pharmacy network. The company said it would become one of top 15 generics companies in both Poland and the Czech Republic.
In the Netherlands, the acquisition would make Aurobindo a leading OTC company by volume while in Spain the company’s position in the generics market would be strengthened. In Belgium, Aurobindo would foray into retail generics space.
Commercial infrastructure that the company expects to acquire from the transaction includes experienced personnel, products, marketing authorisations and dossier license rights in Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, including the manufacturing facility in Leiden, Spain and Belgium.At present, Aurobindo has presence in nine European countries. In 2017-18, its sales in Europe totalled €577 million.
Aurobindo and Apotex will enter into a transitional manufacturing and supply arrangement to support the ongoing growth plans of these businesses. Aurobindo has been expanding its European footprint since 2006, both organically as well as by way of acquisitions, across several key markets.
Prominent ones in the list are the 2014 acquisition of Actavis’s commercial operations in seven Western European countries and in 2017 of Generis Farmaceutica in Portugal.
The net sales for the business being acquired were around €133 million in the fiscal year ended March 2018. Some of them were currently loss-making, but the company expects them to return to profitability when combined with its vertically integrated platform and existing commercial infrastructure.
The indicative time frame within which Aurobindo expects the transaction to be completed is 3-6 months.
